Samburu Research

Adjective
Pronunciation: meh-shah’-moo
Tasteless; doesn’t appeal to the palate. This word pairs with keidukulan, but goes beyond a mere lack of flavor to name “taste that lacks its essence.” 

Meishiamu can apply to milk, but is more usually mentioned in the context of meat and other foods. The term is the opposite of kemolok, which means sweet, perfect, and in harmony.

Nutraloaf, an American prison food that sits on the edge of torture, is often formulated to taste of nothingness. Its absolute lack of taste makes it difficult to eat, so its empty taste is part of the penal concept. The concept underpinning meishiamu is more subtle than something that is simply the nothingness of tastelessness. Food that is meishiamu has lost its intrinsic flavor, so the food is perceived to have a flat, empty taste — for example, goat meat that does not taste of goat.

An animal that has died from an illness or old age yields meishiamu meat. If someone living near a town or shop has such a carcass, they will buy fat, tomato, onion, and salt — ingredients to make up for the missing flavor. However, as one friend observed, you cannot really make up for what is missing, because you still “cannot feel the taste.” The drought-starved cow is skinny and has no fat, so all parts of the animal are tasteless, including soup made from its meat. 

Also, sick and starving cows are kenana (tender) because the muscles have broken down. This is not a texture Samburu appreciate. A friend who lived in Paris for some years says that most, but not all, Parisian steaks, are meishiamu. In this case, the tastelessness comes from the way the animals are raised. Indeed, healthy Samburu pasture-raised animals are notable for their intrinsic flavor, something that is almost entirely missing from meat sold in urban centers internationally. 

Samburu like their meat freshly killed, focusing their connoisseurship on taste rather than soft texture. Once, when I was a young man in Paris, I got chewed out by my host for praising the steak as “tender” (kenana) rather than for praising its taste. 

Milk is said to be meishiamu when the lmala has not been cleaned with burning sticks, or has been so poorly prepared that the aroma of the smoke left by the burning botanicals is not properly fused to the flavor of the fermenting milk. 

Animals that have fed on certain trees, such as lnduapor, lschipuiluo, and euphorbia, produce meishiamu milk. This applies to the milk of cow, sheep, goat, and camel. It affects not only the milk, but also the taste of the meat. Meishiamu milk and meat does not appeal to the Samburu palate as it lacks its essential defining taste.

Porridge cooked with maize flour and lacking all other ingredients, such as oil and salt, is also meishiamu. 

“You cannot feel the taste.” — Robin Leparsanti in discussion with William Rubel, April 1, 2016. 

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Return to Milk Taste and Texture terms.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

Adjective
Pronunciation: XXX
Strong, unpleasant smell and taste. Used in a general context, not just for milk.

Lngusul’s most common usage applies to milk from the poorly prepared lmala of a nkalani woman, in which odiferous bacteria are plentiful. When goats eat sukuroi or lopitara, their milk and their meat will be lngusul in smell and taste. Native Samburu speaker Robin Leparsanti’s goats eat lopitara and people from Wamba say they can taste it in the milk.

The word also is used to refer to anything with a strong smell, such as a poorly cleaned restaurant or bar. 

“Some people may not like it, but those who are used to it like it, or are at least used to it.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere, in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

Return to Milk Taste and Texture terms.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

Adjective
Pronunciation: XXX
The smell of milk, especially goat and sheep milk. Negative term.

Lkiraeu is the unpleasant smell of goat and sheep milk [Is it true of sheep milk? Leave your remarks in the Comments below] when at its strongest, especially during the dry season, and not yet placed inside a prepared lmala to ferment. The shift in milk taste from wet to dry season happens within weeks of the last rain. 

“The smell of the milk, particularly noticeable around sunset (5 or 6 p.m.) when the animal’s blood is very hot. Some girls say they don’t drink this milk as is smells too strong, not good. It also applies to the sticky residue left on your hand after milking goats. Before milking a cow they need to wash their hands as the smell would transfer. They are unhappy when this milk gets on their clothes because of the lkiraeu smell it leaves.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere, in discussion with William Rubel, April 1, 2016. 

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This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

Adjective
Pronunciation: XXX
Creamy. Cream of the milk; fat.

[Should this be lata ate?]

Descriptive term for milk with a smooth, fatty mouthfeel; the feeling of meat fat. 

This is the fat that rises to the top of the milk when it sits. This mainly applies in the Samburu highlands around Maralal, where the climate is colder, and milk sits longer before it ferments (maybe 4 or 5 days). The milk from the Samburu herds of small Boran-breed cows is relatively less fatty than milk from European cows, and may require days to separate.

Lata is milk in an early stage of development, as the milk is maturing to yogurt. A young kule naoto has the lata mouthfeel. The kule naoto will have a flavor profile from the woods that have been used to clean the lmala. In my experience, this is the most delicious stage, most appreciated stage, of milk fermentation. It can taste sweet, like vanilla ice cream, but with an ineffable hint of smoky flavors and aromas.

“Milk as smooth as when you  are eating liquid fat. Very smooth. It just slips down.” — Robin Leparsanti or Longhiro Lekudere, in discussion with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

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This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

Adjective
Pronunciation:
Nice smelling. The opposite of kong’u. 

Koropili especially applies to a freshly cleaned lmala prepared with ng’eriyoi or lorien. Also applies to any sweet-smelling wood, such as sandalwood. Locally, the leaves of nataraquoi [What is the botanic name? Leave your remarks in the Comments below] — a small tree or shrub that looks like ginger [fact check] and grows in mountains, such as the Mathews Range near Wamba — can be added to tea to make it smell nice.

Koropili is also used to refer to the various scents and perfumes used by the murran, and that girls add to their beads. 

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This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

Adjective
Pronunciation:
Bitter and, depending on context, keirapirap (astringent). Negative term.

When translating to English, Samburu speakers don’t differentiate between “bitter” and “astringent,” but lump them both under “bitter.” To be sure what is meant when speaking to a Samburu in English, you must ask where the taste is felt — on the tongue or at the back of the throat? You can also clarify by using the Samburu word for astringent: keirapirap. 

Milk may become intrinsically bitter if the cow has been grazing on loduaporo [What is the description/botanical name for this plant or tree? Leave your remarks in the Comments below.] More commonly, bitterness enters the milk through the character of the smoke that impregnates the lmala when it is cleaned. Bitterness (kodua) and astringency (keirapirap) tend to be fused in the flavors that emanate from the walls of a prepared lmala. Opinions about the positive and negative qualities of bitterness vary. As a rule, a little kodua is perceived as a good thing. As in many culinary cultures, though, strong bitter and astringent tastes are preferred by some people but rejected by most as being too strong. 

Although kodua is a negative term for milk, the word may be positive in non-milk contexts. Examples include some greens, such as managu (related to sukuma); a rainy season fruit called lmorijoi; some solid (not liquid) blackish honey from the flowers of the lparaa (many people like it, and it’s considered good for a sore throat).

“A very simple explanation. When you start using an herb every day, there is the possibility that the herb will make the milk bitter. Even if they use one particular one — all of them if you keep using the same one — the content of that herb in that calabash makes the calabash bitter. Three times in a week, like every other day, if you are milking every day. If not milking every day, might only be once in a week, but still shift. You keep changing as much as possible, not just alternate. It defeats the tongue, meaning the tongue cannot hold it. It discomforts the tongue. It is bitter. Bitter to the extent the tongue cannot hold the bitterness. Like quinine. Burns the throat.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

“When you use lorian, so the flavor also of the milk is nice, very nice. and the tree we call inyeryoi, that is the best one. All of the Samburu, you just know when you test that milk. [You get the perfect balance] because when you put that one is good smelling from the smoke. When you mix some different wood in, like today I use inyeryoi, tomorrow I use a different one, another day I use another one, so the calabash becomes kodua.” Longhiro, January. When you switch to a different wood, you stay with that wood for a while before switching again.

The milk will get a bitter flavor if you don’t wipe the interior of the lmala properly, if some charcoal and soot is left behind. Reference to the other tribes having milk that’s not clean.

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Return to Milk Taste and Texture terms.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

Lmorijoi or lmarguet trees (first rain honey, white) used medicinally and not allowed for pregnant women; also some herbs, for example, lneryioy bark used as a treatment for cows that have retained their placenta after birth, especially stillbirth.]

Adjective
Pronunciation: kehm’-eh-lohk nod’-u-wah
Sweet-bitter. This term complements kemelok nesiicho (sweet-sour).

This taste is generally thought of as a fault, and is used when the flavor of the botanical used to sterilize the lmala dominates all other flavors in the finished milk. This especially applies to the bitter woods. Milk becomes kemelok nodua when not enough of the smoke has been removed, as even bitter woods, such as serai, taste good when the cleaning is done well. This defect is a side effect of failing to wipe clean the lmala after it has been sterilized with burning sticks. Milk from nkalani women (sloppy, careless, slovenly) has not had enough charcoal and smoke removed from the lmala, therefore the milk tastes only okay, not exactly good. A well-prepared lmala leaves only a hint of charcoal on a testing finger swiped on its interior, but kemelok nodua is produced by a distinctly sooty interior. Some complain that kemelok nodua milk makes your stomach rumble, boil, and may even cause diarrhea (see quote below). The aftertaste will also have a strong astringent component. 

Outsiders may read this flavor as overpoweringly smoky. In the Northern Maa language, kemelok nodua is not an appreciated taste, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t favored amongst other culinary cultures. Other pastoralist tribes in the region, such as the Kalenjin, Pokot, and Turkana, have different aesthetic standards. This can include milk that is sooty, presumably kemelok nodua, but in this case it is culturally appreciated. If you are not Chinese and have not grown up with bitter melon, I think you will find it a taste that is very difficult to embrace. 

See also the related term kemelok nesiicho.

“If you drink this milk, it can make your stomach boil, make the gassy rumbling noises.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

“[I have heard that] When you take this milk, you can see your stomach run around like riding in a bus — vroom, vroom, vroom.” — Longhiro Lekudere in conversation with William Rubel, January 15, 2025.

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This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

Adjective
Pronunciation: kehm’-eh-lohk nay-see’-shoh
Sweet-sour. This term complements kemelok nodua (sweet-bitter).  

This compound term speaks to shifts in taste as foods move from the tip of the tongue, where sweet is registered, to the back of the tongue, where it registers sourness. Equal quantities of salt and sugar mixed together is kemelok nesiicho. Kule naoto, an often preferred early stage of milk fermentation, can become kemelok nesiicho four or five months after the animal’s lactation ends. The sweetness comes from the sweetness of lactic fermentation and the sour from acidic fermentation.  

Other foods that have the complexity of kemelok nesiicho include certain kinds of oranges and the local fruits morron (fruit from the mountains), nadonder (looks like a cucumber and you eat the stem), loilei (fruit of the euphorbia used for fences, a favorite of both goats and people, also medicinal if one has the flu), and mpachach (a small plant with tiny pineapple-shaped fruits).

See also the related term kemelok nodua.

“Milk from which fat has been removed. Put in a bowl, shake the bowl, and then remove all the fat. The milk that is left in the bowl tastes at the same time sweet and sour. Kamanang’ is the name of that milk. Ngorno is what rises to the top. Tastes fatty. Used to give weaning childen. Take ngorno, put in a pot, and cook it until it turns brown, and that fat is used on any food. Stored in a calabash covered with skin, hollow with skin at both ends. Keeps for one season. Don’t prepare the container, just fill. Lkisiich is ghee. Lkisiich is the end product of ngorno, used medicinally for children, especially if they have a deep cough. Ngorno does not stay more than 2 to 3 months. When you see the upper covering changing covering and then use it to clean your own milk container. Similar for nyapoor container. Last time has seen it is with her mother — They are the last age who know this food. The man who is 101 said tasted last time he was married, around 1945. Nyatio is the container to separate and shake the milk. Wooden with skin. Why stopped making it so long ago? What changed? Civilization. Now can get the steel containers. People in the deep country might still make it but these people have been around Wamba for a long time.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Ledukere in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

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Return to Milk Taste and Texture terms.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.

Adjective
Pronunciation: kehm’-eh-lohk
Positive term meaning sweet; delicious; well done. Only used in the context of the taste and smell of food (but not just milk). See also the related terms kemelok nesiicho and kemelok nodua.

Kemelok is similar to the American English usage for “sweet,” in that the general liking for sweet tastes has extended the term to an abstract sense of good, lovely, etc. Thus, sugar and honey are literally kemelok, but the word can also be used to figuratively praise a tasty piece of meat, especially goat from the lowlands (e.g., the Wamba area), because it is the right climate for these animals, providing ready access to salt licks, salty water, and enough leaves. Many lowland Samburu prefer the taste of their own goats to those of highland animals, preferring the stronger taste of lowland meat, which they refer to as kemelok. 

Milk is kemolok when consumed fresh, just as the foam subsides and it has cooled after milking. In the traditional Samburu milk-consuming context, fresh milk is not the preferred taste, however kemelok it might be, because, among other cultural faults, it is perceived to smell slightly of the cow’s body and of urine. Kemelok milk is also not appreciated because it is keidukulan (tasteless), as it has not had time to develop the more complex flavors that come from fermenting milk in a wooden container cleaned by burning botanicals. As all milk is milked into wooden containers prepared by burning botanicals, even fresh milk has flavor components most non-pastoralists are unfamiliar with. A shift to plastic milking containers changes the experience of kemelok milk to the relatively homogeneous product that most people are familiar with. In its figurative sense of “good,” even milk that has soured can be referred to as kemelok by someone who thinks the milk is particularly wonderful that day. 

See also kemelok nesiicho and kemelok nodua.

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Return to Milk Taste and Texture terms.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.